France, UK Angry at Trump's 'Looser' Gun Laws Speech in Texas

US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage in France and Britain by suggesting looser gun laws. (AFP/ File Photo)

US President Donald Trump has sparked anger in France and Britain by suggesting looser gun laws could have helped prevent deadly attacks in Paris in 2015, and linking a wave of knife crime in London to a handgun ban.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed his “firm disapproval” of Trump’s remarks and vigorously defended France’s gun controls while calling on Trump to show respect for the victims of the worst bloodshed on French soil since World War II.

In a speech to the National Rifle Association on Friday, Trump mimicked the shooting of victims in the Paris rampage, and said if civilians had been armed "it would have been a whole different story".

“They took their time and gunned them down one by one. Boom! Come over here. Boom! Come over here. Boom!,” Trump said, using his hands in a gun gesture.

In a statement Saturday, Le Drian said gun violence statistics “do not lead us to reconsider France’s choice on this issue.” Gun violence death rates are much higher in the US.

Le Drian continued: “Free circulation of weapons in society does not constitute a rampart against terrorist attacks, to the contrary, it can facilitate ... this type of attack.”

Other French politicians including the mayor of Paris took issue with Trump’s comments, after he acted out the scene of the massacre by militant assailants at Paris’ Bataclan concert hall, where 90 of the 130 victims of the attacks died.

The atrocities by gunman loyal to ISIS were the worst terror attacks in France's history and left the capital and wider country deeply traumatized. 

Former French president Francois Hollande, who was head of state at the time, said on Twitter that Trump’s comments and antics were “shameful” and “obscene”.

The comments from Trump came the week after President Emmanuel Macron visited Washington as guest of honour for a state visit which saw both the leaders eager to stress their friendship.

But it is not the first time Trump has targeted Paris, implying on the campaign trail in 2016 that the City of Lights was overrun by foreigners and extremists.

Victims group 13 Onze 15, which represents people injured in the 2015 violence, had demanded a response from the French government after the latest salvo.

"Our reaction is first of all disgust over unacceptable clowning around," its leader Philippe Duperron told the Huffpost website while asking for "an official reaction".

Other victims including Emmanuel Domenach wrote expletive-filled messages directed at the US president on Twitter.

Former French president Francois Hollande and ex-prime minister Manuel Valls, who were in power at the time of the 2015 attacks, also expressed their outrage in separate statements.

Hollande called Trump's remarks "shameful" and said they "said a lot about what he (Trump) thinks of France and its values".

Valls wrote on Twitter "indecent and incompetent. What more can I say?"

- London targeted too -

The US president also told the National Rifle Association convention in Dallas that a "once very prestigious hospital" in London was like a "war zone" because of knife crime.

"Yes, that's right, they don't have guns, they have knives and instead there's blood all over the floors of this hospital. They say it's as bad as a military war zone hospital," Trump added.

He then mimicked someone using a knife.

Knife-related crimes rose by 23 percent in London last year and a spate of stabbings and shootings have left more than 50 people dead this year.

Trump did not specify which hospital he was referring to but British media said he may have been speaking about The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, in the east of the city.

Professor Karim Brohi, trauma surgeon at The Royal London Hospital, said it was "ridiculous" to suggest guns are part of the solution to knife violence.

"Gunshot wounds are at least twice as lethal as knife injuries and more difficult to repair. We are proud of our world-leading service and to serve the people of London," he added in a statement.

The French foreign ministry statement added that "France is proud to be a safe country where the purchasing and owning of guns is strictly controlled".

"The statistics on gun crime victims do not make us want to change this choice," it said.

This article has been adapted from its original source.